Emily Friedman

Emily Friedman is an independent health policy and ethics analyst based in Chicago. She has been researching and writing and speaking about health policy since 1977. Among her areas of interest are future trends in health care; health care reform initiatives; “comparative effectiveness” and other quality improvement efforts; the social ethics of health care; the future of health care leadership; the ethics of health care leadership; health policy and how it works (or doesn’t); the impact of demographic change on health care; insurance and coverage issues; lessons from international health systems; and the relationship of the public and society with the health care system. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, where she has repeatedly been named one of the School’s best teachers; an honorary life member of both the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association; and a prolific lecturer and writer. She writes a regular column for Hospitals and Health Networks Daily, contributes to many other publications, and is the author or editor of several books on ethics, health care history, and other topics. She is currently working on several writing projects, including a history of health care in Minnesota and an analysis of the debate over the non-profit status of some health care providers and insurers. Her recent major publications include an examination of minority participation in clinical trials and an analysis of the impact of population change on all aspects of health care. Since 2007, she has also been studying and writing about the rebuilding of the Cambodian health care system, which was almost totally destroyed between 1969 and 1979.

Ms. Friedman has been named one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” and one of the “Top 25 Women in Health Care” by Modern Healthcare Magazine, and has won many other awards and honors. In 2011, 2012, and 2014, she was named one of the “top five” health care speakers in the United States by Speaking.com.